It added that the settlement agreement would permit continuing efforts by the plaintiffs and the denomination to pursue claims against remaining defendants, including Symetra, a financial services entity.
Prior to the meeting in Columbus, the Rev. James F. Miller, the current executive director of the Department of Retirement Services, issued a report discussing how a new program is bringing an average return of 8% on current investments. But, writing in The Christian Recorder, the official periodical of the AME Church, he acknowledged that there is still work remaining to restore the missing 70% of the old program’s funding.
Miller asked the delegates to be allowed to resign from his position after he received a no-confidence vote on his leadership from the Commission on Retirement Services.
The Christian Recorder said Miller quoted the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall: “I did the best I could with what I had to work with.”
Miller’s request was granted by the General Conference, and on Monday the Rev. Brian K. Blackwell, pastor of St. Paul AME Smithfield Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was elected as the new executive director of the Department of Retirement Services.
There have been calls, from the ranks of bishop to grassroots AME members, for greater accountability.
The bishops themselves acknowledged in their quadrennial address, a written commentary and critique of church and society, that they had to rebuild trust after the investigations into the retirement services department.
“Although we have developed a new plan that charts a new path and provides more transparency, the future of the AME Church will also depend on our ability to incorporate responsible leadership strategies that will hold the church’s entire infrastructure accountable,” they wrote.
The Rev. J. Edgar Boyd, a leader of “AMEs for Justice and Accountability,” said he viewed the settlement agreement announcement with celebration and caution.
“On behalf of the 5000 plus annuitants in the AME Church, I join my fellow Clergy servants of the church, in celebrating a favorable outcome and turning point in such a painful event in the life of the church,” said Boyd, the retired senior pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, in a statement. “I remain cautiously optimistic in the promised resolution in making the clergy servants whole.”
This article originally appeared here.
 Church announced a settlement agreement with a number of its clergy who had sued the denomination, accusing it of mishandling their retirement funds.){kind=link}